The present invention relates to bollards such as are used to alert traffic of an obstacle to be avoided and more particularly to a bollard which is designed not to be destroyed when struck by a vehicle and which does not damage the vehicle when struck.
Many types of roadway barriers have been proposed over the years and many varieties presently are in use. Bollards or post can be placed between lanes of traffic for traffic lane delineation or placed in parking lots to control where vehicles can travel. Bollards also can be placed adjacent drive-through windows of restaurants or an automatic bank teller machine (ATM) to protect the building and direct the vehicle to a proper position adjacent the window, and like uses. Fixed bollards are not desired in many of these instances as they can cause damage to the vehicles when struck which damage can result in significant claims being paid by the owner of the property and/or their insurance carder. Collapsible bollards are known in the art, though often these collapsible bollards themselves are damaged when struck by a vehicle or, more typically, damage the vehicle so that the owner of the property again is exposed to potential damage claims. Some of these prior bollard proposals are set forth below.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,109 shows a barrier assembly comprising a series of individual guard-roll barrier units which comprise a series of inverted frustroconical rollers which guide an errant automobile along a safe path. U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,347 shows that bollards can be illuminated. U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,499 shows that traffic lane bollards can be mounted on a spring for providing a return mechanism when struck by automobiles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,902 proposes a bollard which is collapsible with an ordinary fire hydrant wrench. U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,464 proposes a bollard which has a flexible column surrounded by a coil spring which has a cover thereover and is collapsible when struck by a vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 3,442,187 shows a similar spring containing bollard which collapses when struck by a vehicle.
Despite the proposals for collapsible bollards, there still is a significant need in the art to design a bollard that can be collapsible so that the bollard itself is not damaged each time it is struck by a vehicle while concomitantly protecting the vehicle against damage when the bollard is struck by the vehicle. The present invention is directed to such a bollard development.